I thought it was time I paid a visit to Oare Marsh Reserve. I use to go there regularly, but I haven't been for ages. When I arrive, I usually make the East Scrape Hide my first stop off point, but today I didn't, I went a short distance past the hide, along as far as the bench. The reason being I wanted to see the White Rumped Sandpiper. This is a small wading bird that breeds in North America, it is a little bit smaller than a Dunlin.It was quite easy to find, the main thing that gave it away was it's white supercilium, although it did flash it's white rump fom time to time. These birds occasionally turn up in Britain, the last one I saw was again here at Oare Marsh in August 1998. This was the only area from which the bird was visible from. Then just as I was packing up to move on 5 of the 8 Spoonbills that are frequenting Oare at the moment flew high over the east Scrape from the Swale area heading inland, that was the last I saw of them, where the other 3 was I didn't know at this time. Mind you it was great to see 5 flying over in formation.
There was also 7 juvenile Yellow Wagtails in the field behind the hide.
From here I went back to the car, giving the hide a miss, and parking up in the disabled bay, in the lay by half way down the road. There was a great deal of waders on the scrape, mainly Black Tailed Godwits, there had to be 100's, with many Redshanks mixed in with them, there was also good numbers of Golden Plover, and Starling. While watching the birds on the scrape, too far away for any decent photo's, 4 Little Grebes kept coming in close,sometimes even sitting on the mud mounds. In all I counted 18 Dabchicks spread about.
Also on the scrape was the following species,
Curlew Sandpiper(1)
Ruff(many adults, and juveniles)
Bar Tailed Godwits,
Little Egret(2)
Grey Heron(1)
Mute Swan(2)
Dunlin,
Lapwing,
Avocet,
Green Sandpiper,
Teal,
Mallard,
Shoveler,
Shelduck
Coot,
Moorhen,
Cormorant,
B/H/Gull,
Herring Gull,
L/B/B/Gull.
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